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Massachusetts House Speaker To Resign

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Robert Wechsler

Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi will be resigning his house seat
tomorrow, according to an
article in today's Boston Globe.
DiMasi is currently being investigated by the Massachusetts Ethics
Commission, and he has raised a defense of legislative
immunity against its request for documents. He is also being
investigated by two grand juries. But he insists that these
investigations had nothing to do with his decision to resign. Sadly,
DiMasi is the third consecutive House speaker to have resigned under a
cloud.

DiMasi blames the ethics investigations on "powerful special
interests," particularly the gambling industry. If he's correct that
the gambling industry is in control of the state ethics commission as
well as state and federal prosecutors, then things are far worse than
any of us ever imagined. If he's correct, then only Sal DiMasi stands
between our freedom and the crime underworld. How could he abandon us
at our time of dire need, to selifishly go back to practicing law or,
maybe, a job in the healthcare industry?

Happily, things move on, and two state representatives are fighting for
the chance to be the fourth consecutive House speaker to resign under a
cloud.